Philippines.  I have 246 SSB countries.  i have made contacts all around the Philippines - litteraly - north , south, east, and west but they elude.

ATNO??
He is good in QRZ but the prefix does not show in my logger nor does Kosovo show on the prefix map.  Is he just too new to show or am I missing something?

For me it's the Begali pearl iambic and for straight key the Begali Blade.
Pure perfection, both of them.
Gene JK3GC

I had a Begali Stradivarius and it was great.  I sold it to get the Begali Pearl and it is beautiful.  The reality is that at this level they are all great and it is more a matter or eye appeal than anything else.  The sculpture is the most expensive so it must be the best of them all - no? 

I don't think it is a problem per se.  It is a small fan and they are noisy by nature.  Tom with THP recommended to me to simply disconnect it which I did with no ill effects.
The fan on the amp is much larger and though far from quiet, has a low pitch noise that I do not find objectionable.  You can put a gasket between fan and chassis that will help some.
73,
Gene K3GC

Not totally worthless - almost but not quite.  Almost every alternative is better.

IMO the Stepper BigIR is the best vertical around.   The element length is adjusted to resonance for each frequency from 80-6m (with the 80m addon).  It is expensive but on t he other hand you will not need a tuner.
Gene KW4GC

IMO the vertical will be completely unnecessary.  i have a steppir BigIR with my hex beam and I virtually never use it any more.  The only reason I haven't taken it down is 40m which the hex does not cover.  The bigIR is a great vertical but it doesn't even come close to the hex beam.
Gene KW4GC

Nylon has considerable stretch and is very vulnerable to uv.  Dacron is a much better choice.

Two comments about this sunspot cycle being a bust.  Perhaps for some - but I just got back in the hobby three years ago and the present conditions have worked quite nicely for me and I see them getting rapidly better now that we are getting into the fall.  My station is as good as it can get for me.  I live in an HOA community and I managed to finagle permission for a hex beam that is not visible from the street.  That means a height of 29' so I am by no means a big gun - more like a good pistol .  Nonetheless I have logged 250 unique entities - most in the last year and a half.

Judging by the size of the pileups I am glad Dxing is a bit "marginalized" or I wouldn't be able to handle them at all.  

73,
Gene KW4GC

I have both.  The BigIR has has 48 radials and is a good performer.
The hex beam is a GREAT antenna.  It routinely receives about 2 s units better than the BigIR and is far quieter.

The only reason I have not sold the Steppir is 40 meters and I use 40 so seldom that it is hard to justify it but 40 may well be the only choice again in a few years .
I only have occasional strong wind at mh QTH but the hex beam will take anything the North Carolina climate can throw at it. 

As of tonight I have worked 250 countries - over 200 of them with the hex beam.

73,
Gene KW4GC

I like the Heil Pro Set Plus.  They are comfortable, cancel a little noise but I can still hear what I need to.  I use the HC4 element and frequently get compliments on audio quality. Unfortunately, they are no longer in production 
Gene KW4GC

Finally - got them on 17ssb this evening after about 12 hours cumulative over the past three days.  The ops are fantastic working pileups like I have never seen.  Whew!!!
Gene KW4GC

I tried the dummy load - it did nothing for me.  Another recommendation was to short the antenna connector and that worked a bit.  I still get enough distortion that I really can't judge signal quality.
The TS-520 does not have attenuation - reducing RF gain only reduces noise.
Any other ideas?
Gene KW4GC

I have a K4KIO hexbeam and had an ALS-600 amp (still do but it's for sale now).  Good combination and i busted many a pile.  I recently upgraded to a Tokyo HyPower 1.5kfx amp.  I really don't care about technical discussions as to dbs and all that.  The point is that I get a lot more a lot faster with 800watts.  For me, it is the difference of night and day.  it is results that count and the extra power gives me more results than I was told to expect.
The same goes for the hexbeam - it works far better than all the models say it should.
One happy dxer here.
73,
Gene KW4GC